Tuesday 30 September 2014

Al-Moallem of Syria




Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Syrian Arab Republic, SYRIAN – steeped in history for seven thousand years. ARAB – proud of its steadfast pan-Arab heritage despite the deliberate acts of aggression of supposed brotherly Arabs. REPUBLIC – a civil state that some, sitting in this room, have tried to return to medieval times. Never have I been in a more difficult position; my delegation and I carry the weight of three years of hardship endured by my fellow countrymen – the blood of our martyrs, the tears of our bereaved, the anguish of families waiting for news of a loved one – kidnapped or missing, the cries of our children whose tender fingers were the targets of mortar shelling into their classrooms, the hopes of an entire generation destroyed before their very eyes, the courage of mothers and fathers who have sent all their sons to defend our country, the heartbreak of families whose homes have been destroyed and are now displaced or refugees.

My delegation and I carry the hope of a nation for the years to come

My delegation and I also carry the hope of a nation for the years to come – the right of every child to safely go to school again, the right of women to leave their homes without fear of being kidnapped, killed or raped; the dream of our youth to fulfill their vast potential; the return of security so that every man can leave his family safe in the knowledge that he will return.

Finally, today, the moment of truth; the truth that many have systematically tried to bury in a series of campaigns of misinformation, deception and fabrication leading to killing and terror. A truth that refused to be buried, a truth clear for all to see – the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic representing the Syrian people, the government, the state, the Army and the President – Bashar al-Assad.

It is regrettable that seated amongst us are representatives of countries that have the blood of Syrians on their hands

It is regrettable, Ladies and Gentlemen, that seated amongst us today in this room, are representatives of countries that have the blood of Syrians on their hands, countries that have exported terrorism along with clemency for the perpetrators, as if it was their God given right to determine who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. Countries that have prevented believers from visiting holy places of worship whilst abetting, financing and supporting terrorists. Countries that gave themselves the authority to grant and deny legitimacy to others as they saw fit, never looking at their own archaic glasshouses before throwing stones at acclaimed fortified towers. Countries that shamelessly lecture us in democracy, in development and in progress whilst drowning in their own ignorance and medieval norms. Countries that have become accustomed to being entirely owned by kings and princes who have the sole right to distribute their national wealth granting their associates whilst denying those who fall out of favor.

They lectured Syria – a distinguished, virtuous, sovereign state, they lectured her on honour whilst they themselves were immersed in the mud of enslavement, infanticide and other medieval practices. After all their efforts and subsequent failures, their masks fell from their quivering faces, to reveal their perverse ambitions. A desire to destabilize and destroy Syria by exporting their national product: terrorism. They used their petrodollars to buy weapons, recruit mercenaries and saturate airtime covering up their mindless brutality with lies under the guise of the so-called “ Syrian revolution that will fulfill the aspirations of the Syrian people.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, how is what has happened and continues to plague Syria, meeting these aspirations? How can a Chechen, Afghani, Saudi, Turkish or even French and English terrorists deliver on the aspirations of the Syrian people, and with what? An Islamic state that knows nothing of Islam except perverse Wahhabism? Who declared anyway that the Syrian people aspire to live thousands of years in the past?

In Syria, the wombs of pregnant women are butchered and their foetuses killed

In Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, the wombs of pregnant women are butchered and their foetuses killed; women are raped, dead or alive, in practices so heinous, so vile and repulsive that they can only be attributed to their perverse doctrine. In Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, men are slaughtered in front of their children in the name of this revolution; worse still, this is done whilst the children of these foreign perpetrators sing and dance. In Syria, how can so-called revolutionaries cannibalize a man’s heart and claim to promote freedom, democracy and a better life?

Under the pretext of the “Great Syrian Revolution,” civilians, clergymen, women and children are killed, victims are indiscriminately blown up in streets and buildings regardless of their political views or ideologies; books and libraries are burned, graves are dug up and artifacts stolen. In the name of the revolution, children are killed in their schools and students in their universities, women are extorted in the name of jihad al-nikah and other forms, mosques are shelled whilst worshipers kneel at prayer, heads are severed and hung in the streets, people are burned alive in a true holocaust that history and many countries will deny without being accused of anti-Semitism.

In the name of a revolution, “to free the oppressed Syrian people from the regime and to spread democracy,” does a father blow himself up with his wife and children to prevent foreign intruders from entering his home? Most of us in this room are fathers – I ask you then, what would compel a man to kill his own family to protect them from freedom fighting monsters. This is what happened in Adra, a place that most of you have not heard of but where the same alien monsters attacked: killing, looting, beheading, slaughtering, raping and burning people alive. You have heard nothing of this brutality for sure, yet you have heard of other places where the same heinous crimes were committed and where the same blood soaked finger was pointed at the Syrian Army and government. And when these flagrant lies were no longer credible, they stopped spinning their web of deceit.

This is what their masters ordered them to do, these countries that spearheaded the war against Syria, trying to increase their influence in the region with bribes and money, exporting human monsters fully soaked in abhorrent Wahabi ideology, all at the expense of Syrian blood. From this stage, loud and clear, you know as well as I do that they will not stop in Syria, even if some sitting in this room refuse to acknowledge or consider themselves immune.

Ladies and Gentlemen, everything you have heard would not have been possible, had our border sharing countries been good neighbours during these challenging years. Unfortunately they were far from it; with backstabbers to the North, silent bystanders to the truth in the West, a weak South accustomed to doing the bidding of others, or the tired and exhausted East still reeling from the plots to destroy it along with Syria.

Misery and destruction, which has engulfed Syria, has been made possible by the decision of Erdogan’s government

Indeed, this misery and destruction, which has engulfed Syria, has been made possible by the decision of Erdogan’s government to invite and host these criminal terrorists before they entered into Syria. Clearly, oblivious to the fact that magic eventually turns on the magician, it is now beginning to taste the sour seed it has sown. For terrorism knows no religion, and is loyal only unto itself. Erdogan’s government has recklessly morphed from a zero problems with its neighbours policy to zero foreign policy and international diplomacy altogether, crucially leaving it with zero credibility.

Nevertheless, it continued on the same atrocious path falsely believing that the dream of Sayyid Qutb and Mohammad Abdel Wahab before him was finally being realized. They wreaked havoc from Tunisia, to Libya, to Egypt and then to Syria, determined to achieve an illusion that only exists in their sick minds. Despite the fact that it has proven to be a failure, they nevertheless are still determined to pursue it. Logically speaking, this can only be described as stupidity, because if you don’t learn from history, you will lose sight of the present; and history tells us: if your neighbor’s house is on fire, it is impossible for you to remain safe.

Some neighbours started fires within Syria whilst others recruited terrorists from around the globe – and here we are confronted with shockingly farcical double standards: 83 nationalities are fighting in Syria – nobody denounces this, nobody condemns it, nobody reconsiders their position – and they impertinently continue to call it a glorious SYRIAN Revolution! While when a few scores of young resistant fighters supported the Syrian Army in a few places, all hell broke loose and it suddenly became foreign intervention! Demands were made for the departure of foreign troops and the protection of Syrian sovereignty and for it not to be violated. Here I affirm, Syria – the sovereign and independent state, will continue to do whatever it takes to defend herself with whatever means it deems necessary, without paying the least bit of attention to any uproar, denunciations, statements or positions expressed by others. These have been and always will be Syria’s sovereign decisions.

They imposed sanctions on our food, our bread and our children’s milk

Despite all of this, the Syrian people remained steadfast; and the response was to impose sanctions on our food, our bread and our children’s milk. To starve the population, pushing them into sickness and death under the injustice of these sanctions. At the same time, factories were looted and burned, crippling our food and pharmaceutical industries; hospitals and healthcare centers were destroyed; our railroads and electricity lines sabotaged, and even our places of worship – Christian and Muslim – were not spared their terrorism.

When all of this failed, America threatened to strike Syria, fabricating with her allies, Western and Arab, the story about the use of chemical weapons, which failed to convince even their own public, let alone ours. Countries that celebrate democracy, freedom and human rights regrettably only choose to speak the language of blood, war, colonialism and hegemony. Democracy is imposed with fire, freedom with warplanes and human rights by human killing, because they have become accustomed to the world doing their bidding: if they want something, it will happen; if they don’t, it won’t. They have heedlessly forgotten that the perpetrators who blew themselves up in New York follow the same doctrine and come from the same source as those blowing themselves up in Syria. They have heedlessly forgotten that the terrorist that was in America yesterday is in Syria today, and who knows where he will be tomorrow. What is certain, however, is that he will not stop here. Afghanistan is an ideal lesson for anyone who wants to learn – anyone! Unfortunately, most do not want to learn; neither America nor some of the ‘civilized’ western countries that follow its lead, starting from the city of lights to the kingdom over which “the sun never set,” in the past; despite the fact that they have all felt the bitter taste of terrorism in the past.

And then suddenly they became “Friends of Syria.” Four of these ‘friends’ are autocratic, oppressive monarchies that know nothing of a civil state or democracy, whilst others are the same colonial powers which occupied, pillaged and partitioned Syria less than one hundred years ago. These so called ‘friends’ are now convening conferences to publicly declare their friendship with the Syrian people, whilst covertly facilitating their hardship and destroying their livelihoods. They openly express their outrage over the humanitarian plight of Syrians whilst deceiving the international community of their complicity. If you were truly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Syria, you would remove your strangle hold on her economy by lifting the sanctions and the embargo, and by partnering with her government in tightening security by fighting the influx of weapons and terrorists. Only then can we assure you that we will be well as we once were, without your deep concern for our wellbeing.
Some of you may be asking yourselves: Are foreigners the sole manufacturers of the happenings in Syria? No Ladies and Gentlemen, Syrians amongst us here, having been legitimized by foreign agendas, have played a contributing role as facilitators and implementers. They did this at the expense of Syrian blood and the people whose aspirations they claim to represent, whilst they themselves were divided hundreds of times and their leaders on the ground were fleeing far and wide. They sold themselves to Israel becoming her eyes on the ground, and her fingers on the trigger for Syria’s destruction; and when they failed, Israel intervened directly to reduce the capabilities of the Syrian Army and thus ensuring the continued implementation of her decades old plan for Syria.

Our people were being slaughtered while opposition figures legitimized by foreign agendas were living in five star hotels

Our people were being slaughtered while they were living in five star hotels; they opposed from abroad, met abroad betraying Syria and selling themselves to the highest foreign bidder. And yet, they still claim to speak in the name of the Syrian people! No, Ladies and Gentlemen, anyone wishing to speak on behalf of the Syrian people cannot be a traitor to their cause and an agent for their enemies. Those wishing to speak on behalf of the people of Syria should do so from within her borders: living in her destroyed houses, sending their children to her schools in the morning not knowing if they will return safe from mortar shelling, tolerating the freezing cold winters because of the shortage in heating oil and queuing for hours to buy bread for their families because sanctions have prevented us from importing wheat when we were once exporters. Anyone wanting to speak in the name of the Syrian people should first endure three years of terrorism, confronting it head on, and then come here and speak on behalf of the Syrian people.

Syrian has welcomed hundreds of international journalists and facilitated their mobility

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Syrian Arab Republic – people and state, has fulfilled its duties. It has welcomed hundreds of international journalists and facilitated their mobility, security and access; and they in turn have reflected the stark and horrific realities they witnessed to their audiences, realities that have perplexed many Western media organisations who couldn’t bear their propaganda and narrative being exposed and contradicted. The examples are too many to count. We allowed international aid and relief organizations into the country, but the clandestine agents of certain parties sitting here, obstructed them from reaching those in dire need of aid. They came under terrorist attack several times, whilst we, as a state, did our duty in protecting them and facilitating their work. We issued numerous amnesties and released thousands of prisoners, some even members of armed groups, at the anger and dismay of their victim’s families; these families though, like the rest of us, ultimately accepted that Syria’s interests come before anything else, and hence we must conceal our wounds and rise above hatred and rancor.

What have you done, you who claim to speak on behalf of the Syrian people. Where is your vision for this great country? Where are your ideas or your political manifesto? Who are your agents of change on the ground other than your armed criminal gangs? I am certain that you have nothing and this is only too apparent in the areas that your mercenaries have occupied or to use your words “liberated.”
In these areas, have you freed the population or have you hijacked their moderate culture to enforce your radical and oppressive practices? Have you implemented your development agenda by building schools and health centres? No, you have destroyed them and allowed polio to return after it had previously been eradicated in Syria. Have you protected Syria’s artifacts and museums? No, you have looted our national sites for your personal profit. Have you demonstrated your commitment to justice and human rights? No, you have enforced public executions and beheadings. In short, you have done nothing at all except muster the disgrace and shame of begging America to strike Syria. Even the opposition, over which you are the self-appointed masters and guardians, do not acknowledge you or the methods in which you manage your own affairs, let alone the affairs of a country.

A country they want to homogenize; not in the sectarian, ethnic or religious sense, but rather in a warped ideological sense. Anyone against them, whether Christian or Muslim, is an infidel; they killed Muslims of all sects and targeted Syrian Christians with severity. Even nuns and bishops were targeted, kidnapping them after they attacked Ma’loula, the last community that still speaks the language of Jesus Christ. They did all this to force Syrian Christians to flee their country. But little did they know, that in Syria we are one. When Christianity is attacked all Syrians are Christians, when mosques are targeted all Syrians are Muslims. Every Syrian is from Raqqa, Lattakia, Sweida, Homs or the bleeding Aleppo when any one of these places is targeted. Their abhorrent attempts to sow sectarian and religious sedition will never be embraced by any levelheaded Syrian. In short, Ladies and Gentlemen, your “glorious Syrian revolution” has left no mortal sin uncommitted.

There is another side to this dark gloomy picture. A light at the end of the tunnel shinning through the Syrian people’s determination and steadfastness, the Syrian Army’s courage in protecting our citizens and the Syrian state’s resilience and perseverance. During everything that has happened, there are states that have shown us true friendship, honest states that stood on the side of right against wrong, even when the wrong was clear for all to see. On behalf of the Syrian people and state, I would like to thank Russia and China for respecting Syria’s sovereignty and independence. Russia has been a true champion on the international stage strongly defending, not only with words but also with deeds, the founding principles of the United Nations of respecting the sovereignty of states. Similarly China, the BRICS countries, Iran, Iraq and other Arab and Muslim countries, in addition to African and Latin American countries, have also genuinely safeguarded the aspirations of the Syrian people and not the ambitions of other governments for Syria.

The Syrian people, like other people of the region, aspire to more freedom, justice and human rights
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Syrian people, like other people of the region, aspire to more freedom, justice and human rights; they aspire to more plurality and democracy, to a better Syria, a safe, prosperous and healthy Syria. They aspire to building strong institutions not destroying them, to safeguarding our national artifacts and heritage sites not looting and demolishing them. They aspire to a strong national army, which protects our honour, our people and our national wealth, an army that defends Syria’s borders, her sovereignty and independence. They do not, Ladies and Gentlemen, aspire to a mercenary army ‘Free’ to kidnap civilians for ransom or to use them as human shields, ‘Free’ to steal humanitarian aid, extort the poor and illegally trade in the organs of living women and children, ‘Free’ to canibalise human hearts and livers, barbequing heads, recruiting child soldiers and raping women. All of this is done with the might of arms; arms provided by countries, represented here, who claim to be championing “moderate groups”. Tell us, for God’s sake, where is the moderation in everything I have described?

Where are these vague moderate groups that you are hiding behind? Are they the same old groups that continue to be supported militarily and publicly by the West, that have undergone an even uglier face-lift in the hope of convincing us that they are fighting terrorism? We all know that no matter how hard their propaganda machine tries to polish their image under the name of moderation, their extremism and terrorism is one and the same. They know, as we all do, that under the pretext of supporting these groups, al-Qaeda and its affiliates are being armed in Syria, Iraq and other countries in the region.

This is the reality, Ladies and Gentlemen, so wake up to the undeniable reality that the West is supporting some Arab countries to supply lethal weapons to al-Qaeda. The West publicly claims to be fighting terrorism, whilst in fact it is covertly nourishing it. Anyone who cannot see this truth is either ignorantly blind or willfully so in order to finish what they have begun.

Is this the Syria that you want? The loss of thousands of martyrs and our once cherished safety and national security replaced with apocalyptic devastation. Are these the aspirations of the Syrian people that you wanted to fulfill? No, Ladies and Gentlemen, Syria will not remain so, and that is why we are here. Despite all that has been done by some, we have come to save Syria: to stop the beheadings, to stop the cannibalizing and the butchering. We have come to help mothers and children return to the homes they were driven out of by terrorists. We have come to protect the civil and open-minded nature of the state, to stop the march of the Tatars and the Mongols across our region. We have come to prevent the collapse of the entire Middle East, to protect civilization, culture and diversity, and to preserve the dialogue of civilizations in the birthplace of religions. We have come to protect tolerant Islam that has been distorted, and to protect the Christians of the Levant. We are here to tell our Syrian expatriates, to return to their home country because they will always be foreigners anywhere else, and regardless of our differences we are all still brothers and sisters.

We have come to stop terrorism as other countries that have experienced its bitter taste have done, whilst affirming loudly and consistently that a dialogue between Syrians is the only solution; but as with other countries that have been struck by terrorism, we have a constitutional duty to defend our citizens and we shall continue to strike terrorism that attacks Syrians regardless of their political affiliations. We have come to hold those accountable, for as long as particular countries continue to support terrorism, this conference will bear no fruit. Political pluralism and terrorism cannot coexist in the same landscape. Politics can only prosper by fighting terrorism; it cannot grow in its shadow.

Nobody has the authority to grant or withdraw legitimacy from a president, a government, a constitution, a law or anything else in Syria except Syrians themselves

We are here as representatives of the Syrian people and the state; but let it be clear to all, – and experience is the best proof – that nobody has the authority to grant or withdraw legitimacy from a president, a government, a constitution, a law or anything else in Syria except Syrians themselves; this is their constitutional right and duty. Therefore, whatever agreement is reached here will be subject to a national referendum. We are tasked with conveying our people’s desires, not with determining their destiny; those who want to listen to the will of the Syrian people should not appoint themselves as their spokesperson. Syrians alone have the right to choose their government, their parliament and their constitution; everything else is just talk and has no significance.

Finally, to all those here and everyone watching around the world: in Syria we are fighting terrorism, terrorism which has destroyed and continues to destroy; terrorism which since the 1980’s Syria has been calling, on deaf ears, for a unified front to defeat it. Terrorism has struck in America, France, Britain, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan; the list goes on and it continues to spread. Let us all cooperate to fight it, let’s work hand in hand to stop its black, horrifying and obscurantist ideology. Then, let us as Syrians stand united to focus on Syria and start rebuilding its social fabric and material structures. As I said, dialogue is the foundation to this process, and despite our gratitude to the host country, we affirm that the real dialogue between Syrians should in fact be on Syrian soil and under Syrian skies. Exactly one year ago, the Syrian government put forward its vision for a political solution; think of how much innocent blood we would have saved had some countries resorted to reason instead of terrorism and destruction. For a whole year, we have been calling for dialogue, but terrorism continued to strike at the Syrian state, her people and institutions.

Today, in this gathering of Arab and Western powers, we are presented with a simple choice: we can choose to fight terrorism and extremism together and to start a new political process, or you can continue to support terrorism in Syria. Let us reject and isolate the black hands and the false faces, which publicly smile but covertly feed terrorist ideology, striking Syria today, but ultimately spreading to infect us all. This is the moment of truth and destiny; let us rise to the challenge.

Thank you .



Later, Minister al-Moallem said,
“The orchestra that we have heard from some sides today and the content of some hostile speeches from some states, to the extent that in some minutes we seemed to have heard old rhetoric with no difference except for the place of delivering them, do not deserve to be answered.”

Concluding the second session of the conference, al-Moallem added,

“Because we want to stop bloodshed in Syria, to protect the lives of citizens, to build Syria again and because, as a state, we play our constitutional, political, security and social role to save Syria from what is going on, we are here and we hope the Geneva conference will be a first step on the way to start Syrian-Syrian dialogue on the Syrian territories.”

“I thank those who have stood by us from the friendly countries for three years so far and we say to all that we will continue hitting terrorism wherever it was with one hand and we will build Syria democratically, politically and socially with the other.”

“I say to those who are interfering in the Syrian affairs through any sort of interference: three years and you are still trying; have you not become desperate yet? … Enough! … Put your hands off Syria so that we can indeed achieve the people’s aspirations of a secure and developed life.”


The (Agent) Orange Revolution




NATO Puppet President of Ukraine, Yushenko, who was brought to power in a stolen election in 2004 (the "Orange Revolution") was "poisoned" and nearly died, the night after he dined with the head of Ukrainan intelligence.



Putin was instantly blamed - not that there weren't 60 million OTHER Russians who didn't wish him dead.



He was rushed to Austria, where it was pronounced that he was suffering from Dioxin poisoning - specifically TCDD.

TCDD is Agent Orange. And the Soviet Union did not use it.

The CIA have a sense of humour.


How to Do Good Research






I'll give you a perfect example, fully documented, from the Martin Luther King case (with quotes and references) :


Dr. William F. Pepper is an absolutely unimpeachable source on the King case - he was a personal friend of Martin Luther King, and has spent 40 years (on and off) involved with the investigation of his death - he has written not one but three books on the case, and argued the case TWICE before a Jury, once in a mock TV trial, once in a Civil Trial (King Family vs. Jowers et al., 1999), where he proved before a jury that the US Government killed Martin Luther King.

In Pepper's first book, Orders to Kill, he quotes former Memphis Police Chief Sam Evans regarding King's "friend", SCLC Minister Rev. Samuel "Billie" Kyles, stating that Kyles was one of his paid informants.

Kyles was a Memphis Police Dept. informant in 1968, at the time of the killing of King. 

FACT.

Shadow Government Shill author Gerald Posner comes along and writes a book subsequent to Pepper, Orders to Kill (1995), in which he quotes Kyles and attacks Pepper as being motivated by money:

"In his book, Pepper raises the strong inference that Kyles might have been an FBI informant; 'Its's degrading and insulting' says Kyles, 'and casts aspersions over my forty years in the Civil Rights movement - I've seen how Pepper operates."

Now - can you see where the cracks are....?

He's denying something he was never even accused of. And it's precisely the same here.

This person is a Police Agent. You are accusing them of being an MI5 agent.

That's absolutely untrue.


The Proclamation of Baghdad - General Maude, 1917



The following proclamation was issued to the inhabitants of Baghdad on March 19, 1917, by Lieut. General Sir Stanley Maude, shortly after the occupation of the city by British forces. 



To the People of Baghdad Vilayet:

In the name of my King, and in the name of the peoples over whom he rules, I address you as follow:-

Our military operations have as their object the defeat of the enemy, and the driving of him from these territories. In order to complete this task, I am charged with absolute and supreme control of all regions in which British troops operate; but our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators. Since the days of Halaka your city and your lands have been subject to the tyranny of strangers, your palaces have fallen into ruins, your gardens have sunk in desolation, and your forefathers and yourselves have groaned in bondage. Your sons have been carried off to wars not of your seeking, your wealth has been stripped from you by unjust men and squandered in distant places.

Since the days of Midhat, the Turks have talked of reforms, yet do not the ruins and wastes of today testify the vanity of those promises?

It is the wish not only of my King and his peoples, but it is also the wish of the great nations with whom he is in alliance, that you should prosper even as in the past, when your lands were fertile, when your ancestors gave to the world literature, science, and art, and when Baghdad city was one of the wonders of the world.

Between your people and the dominions of my King there has been a close bond of interest. For 200 years have the merchants of Baghdad and Great Britain traded together in mutual profit and friendship. On the other hand, the Germans and the Turks, who have despoiled you and yours, have for 20 years made Baghdad a centre of power from which to assail the power of the British and the Allies of the British in Persia and Arabia. Therefore the British Government cannot remain indifferent as to what takes place in your country now or in the future, for in duty to the interests of the British people and their Allies, the British Government cannot risk that being done in Baghdad again which has been done by the Turks and Germans during the war.

But you people of Baghdad, whose commercial prosperity and whose safety from oppression and invasion must ever be a matter of the closest concern to the British Government, are not to understand that it is the wish of the British Government to impose upon you alien institutions. It is the hope of the British Government that the aspirations of your philosophers and writers shall be realised and that once again the people of Baghdad shall flourish, enjoying their wealth and substance under institutions which are in consonance with their sacred laws and their racial ideals. In Hedjaz the Arabs have expelled the Turks and Germans who oppressed them and proclaimed the Sherif Hussein as their King, and his Lordship rules in independence and freedom, and is the ally of the nations who are fighting against the power of Turkey and Germany; so indeed are the noble Arabs, the Lords of Koweyt, Nejd, and Asir.

Many noble Arabs have perished in the cause of Arab freedom, at the hands of those alien rulers, the Turks, who oppressed them. It is the determination of the Government of Great Britain and the great Powers allied to Great Britain that these noble Arabs shall not have suffered in vain. It is the hope and desire of the British people and the nations in alliance with them that the Arab race may rise once more to greatness and renown among the peoples of the earth, and that it shall bind itself together to this end in unity and concord.

O people of Baghdad remember that for 26 generations you have suffered under strange tyrants who have ever endeavoured to set on Arab house against another in order that they might profit by your dissensions. This policy is abhorrent to Great Britain and her Allies, for there can be neither peace nor prosperity where there is enmity and misgovernment. Therefore I am commanded to invite you, through your nobles and elders and representatives, to participate in the management of your civil affairs in collaboration with the political representatives of Great Britain who accompany the British Army, so that you may be united with your kinsmen in North, East, South, and West in realising the aspirations of your race.




Mark Pritchard MP




"You are not fucking royalty, Mr Speaker!" 


Pritchard was brought up and educated in Herefordshire. He remarked on BBC Radio 4 that he comes from an "unorthodox background" for a Conservative Member of Parliament. For the first five years of his life he was brought up in an orphanage in Hereford, and later grew up in foster care living in a council house. He told his local newspaper that his early years were years of "love and warmth" and that he did not have "a single bad memory" of his time in the orphanage.


Pritchard is a member of the UK's Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. He is a member of the UK delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

He is a graduate of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme (Army). He has visited Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pritchard was appointed to the post of Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party's International Office in 2010 but resigned in January 2012 over policy differences on: "a lack of national and individual aspiration, immigration, and Europe."[23] What some commentators called – "the Holy Trinity of the Conservative right".[24]

Regarded as right of centre, Pritchard nonetheless was one of the first advocates of compassionate conservatism in the United Kingdom and has vocally supported the coalition government's policy of increased spending on international aid.[25] He believes in tougher sentences for criminals – but has also supported the coalition government's efforts to increase the number of treatment and rehabilitation centres. He is on record as saying he would not support the restoration of the death penalty.

In 2011, he was named as one of London's 1000 most influential people by the London Evening Standard.[26]

He is the Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Parliamentary Foreign Affairs & Defence Committee. He formerly served as 'backbench support' to William Hague and to Dr Liam Fox, the former British Defence Secretary, whilst in opposition. UK newspapers reported that Pritchard was to be offered the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dr Liam Fox, but the appointment was vetoed by David Cameron. Pritchard was one of the most vocal supporters of Cameron leadership rival, David Davis MP.

In June 2011 he successfully moved a motion to ban wild animals in circuses. In the House of Commons he stated that he had been placed under pressure by the Prime Minister to withdraw the motion, first by being offered a job, and then by being threatened.

Pritchard has been nominated for numerous animal welfare awards including the Dods Charity Champion Award for Animal Welfare.

Pritchard expressed concerns over rumours that the coalition government was planning to field coalition candidates in the next general election, branding those responsible as "The Purple Plotters".

In July 2013, Mark Pritchard announced that he was divorcing his wife of 15 years, Sondra, following their separation in April 2013.

Monday 29 September 2014

Professor Brandy Britton Ph.D


The House With The Lights On
It was a neighborhood just like yours, where children rode scooters in the cul-de-sac. And where men circled at night, looking for . . .
By Darragh Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 21, 2006 

Brandy Britton is on the floor kissing Penelope, her potbelly pig.

Penelope isn't happy. She grunts, loudly, on the bare mattress in her upstairs bedroom. Britton nuzzles her ear.

"You're a bad, bossy girl," she purrs and kisses the pig's snout. Penelope rolls on her side. With a set of red, square fingernails, Britton tickles the pig's belly.

"You're so bad," Britton says, her voice husky and deep. "Such a bad, bossy girl."

She stands -- slender and stacked, blond curls hanging down her back -- and walks into her bedroom. It's 11:05 p.m. The radio is tuned to 92Q, and the DJ on "The Love Zone" is about to give away a "passion pack," complete with "blindfold and scented candles."

"Why don't you come in here?" Britton says, on her way to change into something more comfortable. Just before disappearing behind a bathroom door that doesn't entirely close, she offers:

"You can sit on the bed."

* * *

This is the 42-year-old woman police accuse of "operating a house of prostitution at her home" on a manicured cul-de-sac in wealthy Howard County.

The woman with a PhD in sociology, an expertise in women's studies and a former career as a well-regarded college professor.

The woman who one day at lunchtime earlier this year opened her front door to an undercover detective, led him upstairs and told him, police would later contend, "to undress and place the money on a table by the door." He set down $400, then slipped back downstairs.

Soon, several detectives and a uniformed officer were swarming into Britton's $400,000 house and, she says, dumping out drawers, pulling clothes off hangers, even sweeping the cartoon magnets off her fridge. Armed with a search warrant, they hauled away their evidence: 150 condoms, lubricant, cash, a vibrator and computer equipment.

They also snapped handcuffs around her slim wrists and took her off to the lockup in Jessup.

Twelve hours later, just before midnight Jan. 17, Britton's dress, coat and shoelaces were returned to her, and she crossed the street to a gas station and called a cab. She'd been booked on four counts of prostitution, each carrying a maximum one year in jail and/or a $500 fine. Misdemeanors. Such cases rarely go to trial.

Britton says she's not guilty and denies the charges. She was framed, she says. It's a clever con job, perpetrated by her second husband.

Her trial has been rescheduled for Thursday. She is still interviewing attorneys.

An anonymous complaint of "prostitution activity" at her landscaped, two-story home in Ellicott City got the vice squad's interest in March 2005.

The caller described "an unusual amount of vehicle traffic" at Britton's house and added, "all of the visitors were male and rarely stayed for more than an hour," police wrote in their request for a search warrant.

The caller also offered a Web site where, police said, they found pictures of "Dr. Britton," noted that she "is listed as 'Alexis,' " calls herself a "natural 38D," advertised to a clientele "that appreciates class with a refreshing down to earth attitude" and gave a phone number.

Police "removed 4 bags of trash" from Britton's curb and found, according to their warrant application, "numerous condoms." They found another Web site, Alexisangel.com, now offline, with pictures and a biography that seemed to match Britton -- proof, police wrote, that Britton "had opened her own agency with other girls working for her."

Then, in December, a "concerned" woman called. She complained that "her husband had been visiting a prostitute," police wrote. "She had confronted her husband, who was spending between $300.00 and $500.00 a month on Britton . . . for sex and fellatio.' "

In a quiet corner of suburbia, where the houses are tidy and the children remarkable -- Britton's neighborhood high school boasts the highest SAT scores in a county with some of the highest SAT scores and household incomes in the region -- this was rare, salacious intrigue.

For months, Bonnie Sorak and other residents on Shirley Meadow Court had speculated about the goings-on at the home of the woman known to take walks at midnight, string Christmas lights at 4 a.m. and always buy candy when schoolkids went door to door. Lately, neighbors had noticed, men in golf shirts driving Lexuses and other nice cars seemed to be frequenting the house. Sorak had idly wondered if Britton was dealing drugs. Another neighbor had joked that she must be turning tricks.

Now, as Sorak pulled up to her house, her two small children in the backseat, she spotted police. Hurriedly closing the garage door behind her, she called her husband: "The SWAT team is over there now."

Who was the woman next door?

* * *

Brandy Britton is beautiful and beguiling. Vulnerable -- it's those huge eyes of hers. Warm and witty, then evasive and chilly. Sexy. Unforgettable.

It's been 20 years, but Sheila Cordray can vividly recall her star student at Oregon State University.

"What's Brandy up to these days?" the retired sociology professor cries into the phone. "I haven't talked to her in years!"

"She started out," Cordray continues, "as one of the brightest students I've ever had. I taught for 21 years. Brandy was, at least, the top 2 or 3 student I ever had."

In the fall of 1986, Britton tried to get into Cordray's upper-level sociology class, Methods of Social Research. The teacher refused. She never let students add her class late, and, anyway, Britton "was obviously pregnant -- about eight months pregnant." No way could she keep up.

But Britton was "absolutely determined," Cordray says. "It was her second child, and she knew what she was getting into, and she had lots of help at home." Nineteen years later, Cordray still recalls the details: "She had the baby on a [Friday] afternoon and she was back in class Monday morning."

She earned an A. She was 23.

"She was very mature for her age," Cordray says, "and brilliant. Really brilliant."

* * *

Her mother is on the phone. Victoria Britton doesn't speak much to her daughter, and when she hears of the police raid on Brandy's house, she asks the reporter one question: Was her granddaughter at home?

The girl, now a 19-year-old student at the University of Maryland at College Park, was supposed to have been in Colorado visiting her 21-year-old brother.

"I gave her a ticket," Victoria Britton says. "But I haven't heard from her."

A pause, then, "Oh, those poor kids."

She asks about Britton's job. She says, "I" -- pause -- "thought she was doing a research job." Then, "Yes. She's had financial trouble for several years." Then, "Ah, brother." Then, "There is a lot. . . . She's just got some other problems that have gone on for years."

She says goodbye. She has to call her grandchildren.

But before hanging up, she adds one more thing about her daughter: "She's very supportive of women, and very sympathetic to women who have to do -- "

She doesn't finish the sentence.

* * *

The cul-de-sac is cold and dark.

Britton has agreed to an interview, but at the appointed time, nobody is home but a big black dog, who barks and hurls itself against the leaded glass doors. There is no doorbell, just a scraggle of wires poking outside the doorframe.

Then she calls. She's running late, wants to meet at Starbucks. She orders a grande white mocha Frappuccino light with whipped cream and an extra shot of espresso, plus an espresso brownie -- at 9:35 at night.

Britton does not dress for practicality. Tonight, despite the chill, she wears high-heel wedge sandals and thin brown pants that flare when she walks. She's got bangs and long, loose ringlets in her hair, and her lips glimmer with a petal-pink gloss that's very Bobbi Brown -- very wedding-day pale.

She hates that the reporter called her mother.

"We don't talk," she snaps.

But she asks what her mom said. The anger drains from her face. The answer to her next question matters very much.

"Did she believe it?"

For the next hour, Britton pulls at the Frappuccino straw as if she's at the malt shop and tells the story of a conventional girlhood near Portland, on a berry farm in Boring. "There was a big sign." She laughs. "Welcome to Boring, Oregon."

When she was little, she played dress-up with her sister. In high school? Track, swim team, cheerleader. She wrote a column for the school paper called "Brandy Bears It." Coyly, she explains, "We were the Bruins."

A guy in a green apron interrupts. They're closing.

Britton stands and offers to lead the way back to her house. She points to the parking lot. "I'm in the old burgundy Nissan."

Her voice rises.

"Even though I run a prosti tution ring" -- the heads of two customers whip around and stare -- " supposedly ," she emphasizes, "I don't have any money."

* * *

What happened? Britton was such a remarkable young woman, the first in her family to go to college when she entered Oregon State at 19, "a starry-eyed little girl who wants to be a vet," she says. She wound up majoring in biology and sociology and took seriously the professor who told her, "It's not enough to study the problems of the world. We have to do something about them."

She became an activist. While earning two degrees, with honors, and rearing two children with her first husband, Britton volunteered at a battered women's shelter and helped create the university's first "safe ride" program for escorting women on campus at night.

By the time she turned 30, she was finishing her PhD in sociology from the University of California at San Francisco and would soon be headed east to an assistant professorship at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

At first, in Baltimore, things went well. Very well.

Other professors called her work "really top-notch" and "invaluable." The College of Arts and Sciences dean praised her "outstanding service record" and mentoring skills. Her students wrote letters:

"When your life as a woman is difficult," read a note from Bonnie Woodall, dated Dec. 16, 1996, "and you think that what you do is in vain, remember the students you have taught. . . . You have made a difference."

When Britton got a raise, her department chairman, Derek Gill, sent a personal note of congratulations. When she received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the link between violence and drug use in poor women in Baltimore, he called it "a remarkable achievement for an Assistant Professor in her third year of UMBC."

But the workload was taxing -- and getting worse. Britton asked for extra compensation. Gill agreed. The university didn't. Her request was denied, although a similar request by a male colleague was granted.

More injustice, she perceived. Her activism took over. Her mother had taught her to "fight back," as Britton wrote in the dedication to her dissertation. So she did.

Memos circulated back and forth, creating in her department (as one memo put it) "a blizzard of written and verbal communication." There were investigations into Britton's NIH grant; grumblings by her fellow faculty and complaints by students that included, according to court papers, Britton's "calling them late at night and demanding they come to her house for something work related and then failing to answer the door."

Only a few years earlier, she had experienced a similar undoing in California: She left her job researching drug abuse amid a blaze of litigation -- and sued her employer for gender discrimination. Now, in Baltimore, Britton's life was imploding again. She filed another gender discrimination lawsuit, this time suing UMBC for $10 million. (A federal judge would later dismiss the case; a UMBC spokesman declined to discuss the case while Britton's appeal is pending.) Just before Christmas 1999, she quit the university she once saw "as a stepping stone."

By then, many in her department had turned against her -- a corrosive fact made obvious when her department chairman had a heart attack. Britton asked about visiting Gill in the hospital. Instead, she alleged in court papers, she received a voice mail from the graduate student dating Gill:

"Brandy . . . this is a message direct from Dr. Gill. There is no person on Earth he'd rather see less than you. . . . Stay away from him, leave us alone. You have been a major contributor to this."

* * *

The Frappuccino is half-finished.

She has changed into black sweats, black cardigan and an oversized Testudo's Troops T-shirt, and she materializes in her bedroom -- a place of Asian-inspired tranquility, complete with a canopy bed draped in chiffon, beaded curtains and floating shelves of Asian statues.

Crawling onto the bed, she sits cross-legged and talks for another 4 1/2 hours. Night turns to early morning, and she periodically stands at the end of her bed, stroking the skin of her lower stomach and upper thigh. It's an unconscious habit, like twirling her hair or picking at her cuticles.

She believes, she is saying, her colleagues at UMBC got together and decided, "How are we going to do her in?" She believes they wiretapped her phones and put her under other kinds of surveillance. "I was devoted," she continues. "I spent my whole life working for that. . . . It wasn't just a job to me. It was my life." She left UMBC and "just thought, 'I'm going to lay down and die. I'm so depressed.' "

Since quitting, she has filed for bankruptcy twice and struggled against five foreclosures on her Ellicott City home. In 2001, she filed a $30,000 lawsuit after a car accident, settling later for an undisclosed amount. For about seven months, between October 2003 and April 2004, Britton worked for the Baltimore City Public Schools in the research department.

Ask where she's worked in the past couple of years, and she starts to answer, then suddenly recommends a book: "Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry."

* * *

"It's been a descent for Brandy," her mother says. "Life was going badly. . . . She wanted someone there for her."

That someone turned out to be Isamu Tubyangye.

They met online in March 2002, when Tubyangye answered her Yahoo.com personal ad. He was a 6-foot-5, 31-year-old who worked, she says, for AOL.

Three months later, they married, and over the next three years, Britton, who wrote her dissertation on battered women, filed several domestic violence reports against Tubyangye: "He assaulted me with . . . wooden shoes, a chair"; "tied me up with strapping tape"; "stabbed me in the neck." In a request for a restraining order against him, she wrote: "He attacked me when I tried to discuss separation." Though she filed for divorce six months after their wedding, the paperwork was never finalized.

Tubyangye, who did not respond to repeated voice and e-mail messages asking for an interview, was charged several times with first- and second-degree assault. He, too, petitioned the Howard County court with his own accusations, including that Britton's request for a restraining order came a convenient seven days "after I had given her all of my student loan money . . . $8600," and "my wife is in possession of an unregistered firearm."

By the beginning of last year, Tubyangye was charged with two counts of second-degree assault and one count of violating his probation by violating the restraining order. A bench warrant was issued, and he was briefly jailed in March 2005. That's when, Britton says, he attempted to frame her by directing police to a Web site where Britton appeared to be advertising herself as a prostitute.

And now, she says, "they've decided to go after me instead of him."

* * *

But what about the other Web site? The Alexis Angel Web site. The defunct site that police say shows she had "other girls working for her." The site with erotic pictures of the naked front and back sides of a woman who looks a whole lot like Britton. The site that begins with this disclaimer:

"Money exchanged . . . for modeling is simply for my time and companionship. . . . This is not an offer of prostitution."

The site where Alexis is described as a "quintessential 'brick house' " and "sophisticated, refined, educated and articulate. She has two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in biology and the other in sociology. She also holds a Ph.D. from an elite university." It continues: "An athlete, cheerleader and dancer in high school, Alexis has continued her . . . training and is extremely flexible in excellent shape." It ends, "I AM VERY CREATIVE AND LOVE TO TRY NEW THINGS."

Alexis's fees rival those of a K Street lawyer. An "incall" (at her house) service for "individual clients" runs $300 per hour, $550 for two hours, $800 for three hours. Couples pay almost double those rates, and "two-girl services" cost more than double.

The phone number on the site is Britton's cell.

The domain name is registered to her.

The question is asked:

What about Alexis Angel?

The woman who can make a Frappuccino last six hours and discuss -- at length -- everything from playing dress-up to fighting for underprivileged women, takes a final draw on her green Starbucks straw. She sets the plastic cup on the nightstand.

Her face has hardened.

"I can't discuss that with you."

* * *

Now there's a new Web site, featuring "Claire."

This site displays an open antique book and a still life of French wine, plump grapes and fine cheese -- and a gallery of erotic photos of a nearly naked woman, adorned only in a selection of feather boas, garter belts and bits of black lingerie.

Like Alexisangel.com, the site offers a bio of Claire as "sophisticated, refined, educated and articulate. She holds a post-graduate degree from an elite university." And: "An athlete, cheerleader and dancer since childhood, Claire has continued her dance and athletic training and is extremely flexible and in excellent physical shape." Linked reviews praise Claire in quite complimentary terms. Exults one: "She took several months off and is just back!! It has been 3 very long months waiting for her!!!"

On Mother's Day, in the late afternoon, Britton answers her front door, agitated and dressed in a little red T-shirt, black nylon shorts and bare feet. She is upstairs "with my kids," she says, and can't talk to the reporter now. She says goodbye and begins closing her leaded glass door, and for a moment, the words of her T-shirt are caught in the frame of the door:

"Bad Girl," it says across her chest, "with good intentions."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE
A credit was omitted from the photo of Brandy Britton's home that appeared on the front of the May 21 Style section. The photo was taken by staff photographer Mark Gail.



CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE
A Jan. 30 Metro article said that former college professor and alleged call girl Brandy Britton was found dead in the living room of her Howard County home. Police have not disclosed the room in which her body was found.



Trial Nearing, Alleged Call Girl Found Dead










By Darragh Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 30

She was a former college professor who had lost almost everything -- her stellar academic reputation, her financial well-being and her anonymity in the swanky suburban neighborhood where she was accused of working as a high-priced prostitute.

With Brandy Britton's trial planned to start next week, the former University of Maryland Baltimore County professor apparently took her own life over the weekend, hanging herself in her living room, Howard County police say. A family member found the body Saturday afternoon. Police say they do not suspect foul play.

It was a grievous end to a life that friends and colleagues say was once filled with remarkable promise and ambition.

Britton, 43, was the first in her family to go to college, double-majoring in biology and sociology. Her first sociology professor, Sheila Cordray, told The Washington Post last year that Britton was "one of the brightest students I've ever had."

The woman whose looks matched her intelligence may still have possessed the long, blond hair, the glossy pink lips and the glamorous figure of her youth. And she may have still projected the warm, friendly demeanor of a small-town girl from Oregon.

But she was facing the world's toughest truth: She had no idea who she was about to become.
Her trial date on four counts of prostitution -- which she had decided to fight in a jury trial instead of accepting a plea agreement -- was set for Monday. Police would get a chance to air their version of Brandy Britton: that in her $400,000 home at the end of a cul-de-sac where children ride Razor scooters and moms drive minivans with soccer decals, Britton had been selling herself as a call girl.
She called herself Alexis, police said and advertised on a Web site that described Alexis as a "quintessential 'brick house' " and "sophisticated, refined, educated and articulate. She has two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in biology and the other in sociology. She also holds a Ph.D. from an elite university." It continued: "An athlete, cheerleader and dancer in high school, Alexis . . . is extremely flexible in excellent shape."

In a sting, Howard police sent an undercover officer to her house last January and arrested her.
Britton heatedly denied the allegations, but when The Washington Post asked her last year how she had been supporting herself since leaving UMBC in late 1999 and a subsequent job with the Baltimore public schools, she started to answer, then suddenly recommended a book: "Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry."

Fighting on Several Fronts

Her attorney, Christopher Flohr, has been out of his office taking care of his ailing father and had hoped to postpone her trial date. Flohr's partner, William Paul Blackford, heard the news of her death yesterday morning when The Post called. He sat in silence for several moments, then spoke of her other recent court battle: foreclosure hearings on her home.

He talked about Britton's fears that she would lose the house where she had raised two children, now grown, as a single parent and where she had been living with her two potbellied pigs, dog and two cats.

"That is one of the most heart-wrenching processes for a person to go through," Blackford said, continuing to talk, then interrupting himself, as though the news about Britton's death had just sunk in. "This is horribly sad."

Blackford suggested that Britton's state of mind lately was comparable to a starkly clean and ultra-modern home -- as Britton had decorated her living room and den, complete with sleek black leather couches -- and then "there's a stack of magazines in the living room and then there's a hamper," and then the mess has crept across everything.

"Her house," he added, "I think it's fair to say, it wasn't impressive."

Britton was a scramble of complications: She lived in a landscaped home with leaded-glass front doors that disguised the scratched-up carpet and scuffed walls inside. She was a sharp researcher whose dissertation focused on abused and battered women who then found herself, a few years ago, filing domestic-violence charges against her second husband: "He . . . tied me up with strapping tape" and "stabbed me in the neck," she told police.

In a statement yesterday, Flohr said that Britton's death "underscores an important question: Was the public benefited at all by the resources spent on her arrest and prosecution? As we ponder the apparent senselessness of her passing, we must openly wonder about . . . a criminal justice system that seeks to punish a person rather than heal them."

Confusion and Depression

"It's been a descent for Brandy," her mother, Victoria Britton, said last year from her home in Oregon. She did not return calls for comment yesterday.

Victoria Britton had cheered, she said, when her daughter earned a PhD in sociology and arrived in the mid-1990s at UMBC, where she received raises and raves from other professors, who called her work "really top-notch" and "invaluable."

But the raves subsided after Brandy Britton filed a $10 million sex discrimination suit against UMBC -- one mirroring the suit she had filed against her California employer just before joining UMBC. She left the university at the end of 1999.

"I spent my whole life working for that," she told The Post last year, as she talked about her PhD and her identity as a college professor. "It wasn't just a job to me. It was my life."

And now, she continued, she had no idea what would happen next -- or whom she could next become. Her fight with UMBC would keep her from ever teaching again. Already, she believed, "they" were tapping her phones and bugging her home.

It was too much, she said, and she found herself thinking:

" 'I'm going to lay down and die. I'm so depressed.' "


Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the "D.C. Madam," once implied that suicide was cowardice but, in the end, she seems to have chosen that same path herself. "She wasn't going to jail, she told me that very clearly. She told me she would commit suicide," author Dan Moldea told TIME soon after news broke of her body being found in Tarpon Springs, Florida, an apparent suicide. Palfrey's body, along with a handwritten suicide note, was discovered by police in a storage area attached to her mother's mobile home. Palfrey contacted Moldea last year to provide her help writing a book. "She had done time once before [for prostitution]," Moldea recalls. "And it damn near killed her. She said there was enormous stress — it made her sick, she couldn't take it, and she wasn't going to let that happen to her again." Palfrey had been free pending her scheduled July 24 sentencing on a series of racketeering and money laundering charges as part of running a prostitution ring that had as clients many prominent Washingtonians, including Senator David Vitter of Lousiana. She faced as many as 55 years behind bars (though sentencing guidelines could well have limited her prison time to a maximum of 71 months.)

When a former employee of Palfrey's, Brandy Britton, hanged herself before going to trial, Palfrey told the press, "I guess I'm made of something that Brandy Britton wasn't made of."

Palfrey's trial, which concluded in mid-April with a conviction, is one of very few such cases prosecuted in the federal courts. Most prostitution violations are dealt with at the state or municipal level, and attract little publicity. In the Palfrey case, prosecutors obliged a string of obviously embarrassed clients and employees of the escort service to appear on the witness stand and testify under oath. Nearly all testified that they had engaged in sexual acts in exchange for money, a version of events that contradicted Palfrey's claims that she had been running a high-end sexual fantasy service — and that any actual sexual activity was against the rules, and clearly stated when employees were hired.

Palfrey ran her operation — which covered the Washington D.C., Baltimore and northern Virginia area — by telephone from her home in California. Clients would contact her, often in response to advertisements in Washington newspapers and magazines, and she would set them up with women. According to court testimony, Palfrey would sometimes even contact clients for after-action reports to determine whether her employees were doing their job correctly and enthusiastically.

It was Palfrey's phone records that led to problems for prominent Washington figures once her prosecution got under way. She had thousands of pages, including 10,000 to 15,000 numbers of clients calling in to her California residence. Besides Sen. Vitter, others whose names appeared on those records included Randall Tobias, a senior State Department official in charge of foreign aid — who had publicly inveighed against prostitution and who quickly resigned after his name was made public. Harlan Ullman, a well-known military specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, was also identified.

According to Moldea, who last year examined Palfrey's phone records and discovered the name of Vitter, a Republican, as a client of Palfrey's escort servie — Pamela Martin & Associates — the last time he saw Palfrey in person was less than week before her conviction on prostitution charges on April 15. "A friend and I met with Jeanne and we had a sushi lunch near the courtroom," he said. "She was upbeat and hopeful. She felt the prosecution had not made the case and that she was going to walk. She was hopeful to the end." But, when the jury came in with her conviction, she reportedly was taken aback. "When I heard that I knew that, for her, it was all over. There is no question in my mind that she took her own life."

Vitter remains a Senator and has not been censured, despite coming under intense public criticism. Of Palfrey, Moldea said, "I liked her. She was a good person, she was kind, funny, she had a sense of humor, and what she may have done in business, I bring no judgment to that. You have to remember that all those who worked for her service and those who used it — none of them were held to account, or punished. And now, she is dead."